Redistricting need is self-evident

Sunday

Jun 15, 2008 at 12:01 AM

First, I want to thank Senator Mellow for dropping his reference to Lackawanna County on his Web site (his occupation was previously listed as Lackawanna County State Senator.) This change followed recent controversy surrounding the redistricting issue and whether Monroe County appeared on the senator's Web ite. I believe that other state senators across the state made the same correction.

MARK LICHTY

First, I want to thank Senator Mellow for dropping his reference to Lackawanna County on his Web site (his occupation was previously listed as Lackawanna County State Senator.) This change followed recent controversy surrounding the redistricting issue and whether Monroe County appeared on the senator's Web ite. I believe that other state senators across the state made the same correction.

Identifying a single county in a senator's listed occupation left the impression that that is the "only" county represented. At the same time, I apologize for the letter to the editor in which I said that our local senators did not refer to Monroe County on their Web sites, when indeed they did elsewhere on the site. However, I hope they can understand the confusion. I do appreciate their dropping the reference to their primary county.

Normally I would be a bit contrite about all of this. I am not, as the happy circumstance here is that my original letter to the editor has resulted in about five more letters around the subject of our outrageously gerrymandered county and state. This topic needs exposure. I have heard that Senator Mellow has said that we don't need to look at redistricting as no one is complaining. To that, I say look at the pictures of the convoluted districts that our gerrymandering legislators have created. How do the 2002 district outlines comply with the mandate that they be compact and contiguous? With districts that look like that, legislators need complaints?

Sen. Mellow has done many positive things for Monroe County. He should continue by acting on this critical issue.

We don't want gerrymandered districts and we don't want six senators. We want one. If we had one strong dedicated senator, local issues like traffic, derailing of the Route 209 bypass, etc. would not be "bypassed" as they now are.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank our state Rep. Mike Carroll, D-118 and state Rep. Mario Scavello, R-176 for their most generous offer to organize and fund a bus trip to Harrisburg for us to make a statement about this issue. We thank representatives John Siptroth, D-189 and Mike Peifer, R-139, for their cosponsorship of H.B. 2440 on redistricting. We also thank Sen. Lisa Boscola, D-18 for her leadership on this issue; Senator Boscola introduced SB346 which was co-sponsored by our Sen. Pat Browne, R-16. We were disappointed to see the political shenanigans pulled by the House State Government Committee claiming the Legislative Review Board couldn't handle this. It seems to work quite well in Iowa. This effort to derail the legislation is just indicative of how broken the system is. Fortunately, the League of Woman Voters of Pennsylvania, Common Cause and Democracy Rising are working on this. I hope we can prevail by the June 23 deadline.

However, I appeal to all of those organizations, and the voters, to take names and numbers. Accountability is key. Gerrymandering is not a gray area. It is about democracy and representation. Pennsylvania is the second-most-gerrymandered state in the nation, and our county is likely the most fragmented in the state. The situation is serious, and needs no further input from the voters to substantiate the problem.

Our legislators need to be out front on this issue. If they are not leading the charge for reform here, they do not deserve your vote in the next election. The clock is ticking and runs out on June 23. This issue is in some ways more important than the pay raise issue. Many legislators fell over that one because you remembered and held them accountable. That will be the key here as well.

Take back the power.

Mark Lichty is a retired businessman and a member of the League of Women Voters of Monroe County. He moderated the League's recent public forum calling for a non-political method of redistricting in Pennsylvania. He lives in East Stroudsburg.